


Whiskey and Honey

by KurageMafia



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Era, Blackwatch Genji Shimada, Blackwatch Jesse McCree, Blackwatch Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Drunken Confessions, Drunken Shenanigans, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Jesse McCree & Genji Shimada Are Best Friends, Jesse McCree is a Little Shit, Love Confessions, M/M, Mission Fic, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24292411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KurageMafia/pseuds/KurageMafia
Summary: Genji, without his mask, had opted for swinging off of one of the large lampshades in the room, singing loudly and badly in Japanese. If he didn’t know any better, Reyes would have put it down to being a cover of one of the Sia songs from the early 2010’s.His thoughts were confirmed when Jesse joined in for the chorus, equally drunk, but singing worse, and leapt up to join his team member on the lightshade.As Gabriel watched the two of them cling to each other, and the lightshade, he felt a pang of something shoot through his veins.He would refuse to admit it was jealousy.-After a Blackwatch mission, the team celebrate with a party and everything falls to shit.
Relationships: Jesse McCree/Reaper | Gabriel Reyes
Kudos: 35





	Whiskey and Honey

**Author's Note:**

> As always huge thanks to my beta reader AquaeLucidae! 
> 
> Couldn't do it without you!

The air was thick with the stench of death.

Reyes stood among the corpses of his enemies, panting slightly. He lowered his shotguns as he stood in the rust-coated pipes of the underground system he had found himself cornered in. The mission hadn’t gone as smoothly as he had hoped, but he knew from the beginning it would’ve been bloody.

“This is Reyes.” He spoke into the communications device in his ear. “Does anyone copy? Over.”

A chorus of copies and statuses rang through his ears, but Reyes still had an agent missing.

“Agent McCree?” His heart pounded faster, despite his adrenaline lowering. “McCree do you copy?”

_“Reyes, look out!”_ The voice of the cowboy came from behind him, rather than the comms. Reyes spun on his heel only to hear a shot echo through the large metal pipes that sprung off like a maze from around him.

A body fell at his feet to reveal Jesse McCree stood directly behind Reyes’ assailant, peacekeeper in hand, aimed at where the bullet hole was. When the body didn’t move, McCree stepped over it and towards Reyes.

Jesse’s whiskey eyes, although fatigued, still held a teasing gleam. His cheekbones were splattered with blood and sewage grime, but Reyes could see that even in the gloom, he wasn’t too badly injured.

“You ain’t gotta fret none now Reyes, your knight in shining armour has arrived.” McCree had a shit eating grin smeared across his face.

“More like a cowboy in a ridiculous hat,” Reyes muttered back.

“No need to thank me, darlin’. Unless you wanna buy me a drink for my troubles.” McCree tipped said cowboy hat and sent a wink flying at Gabriel.

Reyes scowled, locking eyes with the twenty-year-old before him. He had filled out a little since Gabriel had picked him up out of the sandy deserts and ghost towns of Deadlock territory. His shoulders were broader, muscles more prominent, and he even had a smattering of stubble along his jawline.

‘No.’ Reyes internally scolded himself for looking at Jesse in such a way. Jesse was his inferior, and they had almost 20 years between them. Jesse could do so much better than his washed up Blackwatch commander who couldn’t even get through one damn night without the corpses of his strike teams haunting him.

“Let’s get going,” Reyes stated gruffly, deflecting Jesse’s advancements.

Jesse ducked his head down. “Yes, sir.”

The pair made their way through the cavernous pipes with ease. The sewer system was an underground black trade hub which Reyes and his team had been assigned by Morrison to take out, and don’t take prisoners They had the intel they needed, and there was no point in trying to imprison these people if there was a high chance of them killing his agents.

Gabriel and the rest of his team regrouped and were soon picked up by a dropship.

All in all, the mission had gone well. There were no casualties on Reyes’ team, and only some injuries that Angela couldn’t easily resolve.

Thus was the tradition; the Blackwatch team were having a party.

When McCree announced this on the flight back, Reyes internally grimaced. Sure, the parties could be fun, but watching his highly trained stealth agents getting absolutely pissed was something you could only witness so many times over before it became a chore to clean up afterward.

Still, Reyes reckoned, he would be the only one who didn’t have a hangover sent from the underworld, as the rest of the team’s sluggish synapses flicker desperately whilst trying to not throw up water.

Reyes looked away from Jesse’s announcement of the party. He couldn’t look at him without envisioning that wink again, or the way his messy hair had blown in the wind from the dropship’s landing, or the way his muscles had flexed beneath his thin mission-wear when he hauled himself in, or how-

Reyes almost slapped himself.

_Almost._

He sighed, and risked one last glance at McCree, who by now had finished his announcement.

McCree sent him a bright smile, and Reyes looked away again, opting to focus his aching eyes on the other side of the dropship.

What Gabriel didn’t see was the little falter in Jesse’s smile when he did.

-

Reyes was right. There was a limit to how many times he could watch this.

What surprised however was that the star of the show was the one agent you definitely wouldn’t expect.

Genji Shimada. He’s just been allowed to get drunk, even though Angela had advised against it, and he had really gone to town.

Genji, without his mask, had opted for swinging off of one of the large lampshades in the room, singing loudly and badly in Japanese. If he didn’t know any better, Reyes would have put it down to being a cover of one of the Sia songs from the early 2010’s.

His thoughts were confirmed when Jesse joined in for the chorus, equally drunk, but singing worse, and leapt up to join his team member on the lightshade.

As Gabriel watched the two of them cling to each other, and the lightshade, he felt a pang of something shoot through his veins.

He would refuse to admit it was jealousy.

This was what he wanted for Jesse. A partner to his standards, of his age, who would really truly care for him. Maybe then Reyes could get his mind off of the Hispanic tornado of an agent.

_“Having fun Gabriel?”_

Reyes shuddered at the razor-sharp edge to Moira O’Deorain’s cold voice. He turned to face Blackwatch’s resident doctor as she approached him. Everything about her screamed predator, but Gabriel Reyes wasn’t about to become prey.

“What can I do for you?”

“Loosen up a bit.” Moira sloshed a glass of something alcoholic Gabriel’s way, only for him to politely decline. “And then stop by my lab for a little _check-up.”_ Her spindly hands flickered over his bicep and Reyes wished he could tear her hand away. He stayed still, glaring into her mis-matched eyes.

“I already told you. I don’t want to be your fucking lab rat.”

“Well,” Moira’s unnaturally white teeth flashed against the warm colours of the party, “if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.”

With that, she returned to the shadows of the crowds to do… whatever Moira liked to do in her free time, which Reyes really didn’t want to think too hard about.

As he warily watched her go, another incident caught his attention.

One of the party goers was leaving in rather a rushed manner, pushing through the crowds aggressively and making a beeline for the exit. Only issue was, they had a worn, brown, cowboy hat on.

Gabriel looked around, before making a decision. He slipped through the moshing party hot on the tail of the hat.

It took a turn sharply to the left at the exit, and then Reyes lost sight of it and its owner.

Some poor unfortunate agent managed to get shoved over and found himself beneath Reyes’ boots. He would have to apologise later. If he remembered.

After making it to the hallway outside, Gabriel wildly scanned it for any sign of the cowboy. His battle-sharpened, hyper focused gaze noticed a slight movement of the door to the men’s room.

At this point, Gabriel paused to evaluate his situation. Should he really be getting involved in this? Jesse McCree was, first and foremost, his agent. Not a friend. Yes, they laid their lives in each other’s hands in the field, but in Gabriel’s line of work that wasn’t special.

But Jesse _was_ special. That was the issue.

Still, Gabriel was about to turn around and re-join the party, but a tiny sniffle rang in his ears.

There was no doubt where and who it came from. Gabriel made up his mind, and pushed open the hard, grey door.

He tried not to make any noise as he entered the dark room of stalls.

The lights were off, and it appeared empty, but Gabriel could still here the sniffling and the wet, heavy breathing.

“Jesse?” He began. “Are you in here?”

The noises came to an abrupt stop in the form of a hiccup.

“Everything all right?” He knew that it wasn’t.

Gabriel could hear rustling in the stall, like Jesse was trying to dry up tears with his sleeve.

“Do you think you can open the door?” Gabriel softened his voice further, letting it sink lower in an attempt to comfort Jesse.

The affirmation was a small click; the only noise between the echoing stalls.

The door swung very slowly outwards, and Reyes resisted the urge to peek around the door and pressure Jesse into telling him who to send into hospital.

He had to do this carefully.

When the door finally opened wide enough, he could see Jesse’s shadowed form slouched against the bowl of the toilet, hair messy and eyes red and still dripping with tears.

Gabriel crouched, sat on his heels just above Jesse’s eye level. He doesn’t make contact.

“What’s got you all upset now, eh?” Gabriel tried to mimic the tone that his abuelita had used on him whenever he got beat up from the big kids in the neighbourhood. Never condescending, but always interested and comforting. Soothing.

Gabriel didn’t know if he’s pulled off the intention he’d wanted, but Jesse shook his head. He gave a loud sniff. “’S’alright, boss. Ya don’t have’ta worry… ‘bout me.” Jesse slurred out between hiccups.

“It is my duty to keep tabs on the welfare of all of my agents McCree.”

Jesse scoffed at the word agents. His wobbly gaze found its way to Gabriel’s strong, honey eyes. They held pure honesty and concern.

Jesse seemed to think for a moment before saying, “You ‘n the witch. You’re… close, aren’t’cha?”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“You ‘n fuckin’… _Moira._ ” Jesse spat her name.

Gabriel felt physically sick. If Jesse wasn’t so drunk, he would’ve laughed. “Moira? The fuck gave you that idea ingrate?”

“How could I not’ve?!” Jesse burst out, wildly failing his wrists as he tried to emphasis his point. “She had her… fuckin’, _talons_ all over ya! Touchin’ ya ‘n stuff…”

Gabriel shook his head slowly. “No Jesse. I don’t take home many women, and those who I do take aren’t sadistic doctors who want to turn me into another experiment in the main.”

Jesse eyed him warily. “Well yeah, y’ain’t got the time… for like… women ‘n stuff. Ya jus’ don’t know… your taste…”

“Jesse I’m pretty damn sure I-“ Gabriel cut himself off and took a deep breath. “That’s not what I meant. I like males and females; I just prefer men.”

Jesse’s eyes widened, and for a split second, Gabriel’s stomach sank into the pits of hell. If Jesse had been raised as religiously as he had-

“Me too. Men, I mean…”

Gabriel studied Jesse for a few seconds. The latter’s eyes had darkened slightly. “There’s nothing wrong with that, you know.”

“I… think so…”

“So, let me get this straight. You were upset because you thought I was dating _O’Deorain?_ I’m flattered you’re looking out for me but really you should keep your nose out of my love life. It’s a very boring place.”

Jesse seemed to curl in on himself as more tears threatened to spill.

Gabriel mentally backpedalled trying to recall what he said wrong.

“I don’t mean that in a bad way! I just-“

_“I like you Reyes.”_

Gabriel stopped. Completely. “You what?”

“I like you. I fuckin’ like you Reyes. You’re too fuckin’ hot ‘n clever ‘n always lookin’ out for us. For me. ‘N I guess it’s kinda just a stupid fuckin’ schoolboy crush or some fucked up shit like that, but, I dunno, I can’t get over this. Can’t get over _you_.”

Jesse’s voice cracked, and Gabriel struggled to find words. Jesse continued.

“You’re in my mind ‘n you’re fuckin’ stuck there. You ‘n your fuckin’ biceps. You’re too good for me also, ‘n I know I’m not deservin’ of ya at all, but there’s just somethin’ Reyes. ‘N seein’ ya with her just made me so angry ‘n sad because I know what I want but I can’t have it because it’s you.”

Gabriel tried desperately to keep up with Jesse’s drunk ramblings. They were difficult to comprehend in such a rushed blast of emotions. From any other person they wouldn’t make sense but something about Jesse’s small voice and uncontrolled tone made Gabriel believe he was speaking from his heart.

“Just hold on a second, Vaquero. You sure this isn’t just because you’re drunk?” Gabriel had to make sure. He couldn’t get invested in this for it to be all over as soon as the alcohol left Jesse’s system.

“I know it’s fuckin’ not! I just ain’t got th’ balls t’say it when I’m sober!” Jesse replied, voice raised in desperation as he locked his puppy eyes onto to Reyes. His shoulders slumped as he lowered his tone. “You’re m’commander. It’s not s’posed to be like this. There’s an age difference, but for some reason that don’t seem t’matter t’me. It ain’t like you’re some creepy old guy tryin’ t’get into my pants, but it jus’ feels so right t’me. Even though I know it should feel wrong ‘n all.”

Gabriel didn’t know how to reply. He didn’t want to shut Jesse down because this was what he wanted.

Jesse wanted it too – or at least said he did.

Whatever the case, Gabriel wasn’t about to let romance bloom on the cold, damp floor of the men’s bathroom.

“How’s about we take you to your bed, and tuck you in, and we’ll talk about this in the morning when you can think better?”

Jesse nodded slowly, and Reyes stood up. He offered Jesse his hand.

Jesse pouted and shook his head before stretching his arms up with a pleading look on his face.

Gabriel rolled his eyes, cursed whatever God was out there, and lifted Jesse into his arms bridal style. He desperately tried to conceal the fond smile when Jesse beamed and snuggled into his broad chest.

By the time Gabriel had made it to Jesse’s room, (thankfully without bumping into any other agents), Jesse was basically asleep. All the tension had dropped away from his body, and his mouth was open slightly. Soft snores could be heard, and if Gabriel listened closely, just the slight whistle of air between the tiny gap in Jesse’s front teeth.

Gabriel couldn’t stop the endearment flush red across his face and race through his heart.

He laid Jesse amongst the jumbled white sheets and pulled them over his white T-shirt and jeans. He untied the flannel from around Jesse’s waist and draped it across the back of a nearby chair.

He turned to leave, but Jesse’s long fingers sleepily laced themselves with his.

“ _Gabe…_ ” Jesse breathed out.

Gabriel re-approached him, and gently removed his fingers. He bent down close to Jesse’s face and placed the lightest, most tentative of kisses to Jesse’s wave of hair just above his forehead.

“Get some rest, Jessito.” Gabriel couldn’t help the name slip out. He begged Jesse wouldn’t remember in the morning.

“Buenas noches, Gabe.” Jesse yawned with a smile, and Gabriel left him to dream.

He secretly hoped the cowboy dreamed of him.

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far thank you so much!
> 
> Leave a comment to give me some feedback and help me improve :>


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